A Farm Girl: Three Acres of Fertile Land Can Be Exchanged for a Country

Chapter 66 Refusing to Help Those in Dire Need

After a lot of hard work, everyone finally reunited, each finding a tree branch to probe the way, and began to search carefully.

Suddenly, a soldier exclaimed that he had found it. The crowd rushed over and hurriedly turned over the mud. Lying in the mud was an old man with gray hair, stiff limbs, and his mouth and nose were covered with mud. He was obviously dead.

They were there to rescue him, which made their hearts sink. They dragged the old man out and put him down, then continued their search in silence.

Several more people were subsequently found, but few were alive and many were dead.

Wutong vaguely heard cries coming from the flowing water. He went to investigate and was stunned.

Just below the rushing water, there lies a large tree that would take two arms to encircle, its roots detached from the soil and exposed bare.

On the other side of the suspended tree canopy, there are two conspicuous, thick branches.

A child was perched on each branch; a boy was on the left, and a girl on the right. The girl was still crying; the cries from earlier had come from her. But the boy was on the verge of death, struggling even to open his eyes.

Their lives hung by a thread, clinging tightly to the branches of the tree; a single misstep could send them tumbling into the raging river.

"Come on!"

Wutong waved frantically, and everyone gathered around, stunned by what they saw.

This is how to do?

Zhao Sanyang was bold. He touched the tree roots and said, "I'll go over and carry them both over."

The sycamore tree said, "Heart."

Zhao Sanyang nodded, and cautiously stretched out one foot, gently stepping on the tree trunk.

The tree trunk is thick enough that it's not difficult for a person to walk through it, but most of its trunk is suspended in the air.

Zhao Sanyang had taken less than three steps forward when the tree trunk suddenly tilted downwards. He took a step back in alarm, and the tree trunk swung back like a seesaw, barely managing to stay upright.

That was too dangerous! The three of them almost fell into the river along with the tree!

The crowd gasped in shock. The girl cried even more bitterly. Zhao Sanyang broke out in a cold sweat and dared not go any further. He wisely retreated.

"What should we do? We can't just stand by and watch someone die."

A soldier suggested dragging the tree over, and everyone tried together, only to find it was a pipe dream.

Such a heavy tree cannot be moved by just a few people; it would take at least a hundred people to move it. However, the soil here is too soft to support the weight of a hundred people.

Before I knew it, half an hour had passed since I came down here.

Wutong was very unwilling. She was an engineering student who knew math and physics. Was she really useless?

She looked up and around, trying to find some tools she could use. Upon closer inspection, she actually saw a huge rock hanging five or six meters above her head.

The rock protrudes from the cliff face and is very stable. If a rope is tied to it, it might be possible to use the momentum to swing across and pull the person out.

She shared her idea, and everyone cheered, eager to try it out.

Wutong stopped them and said gravely, "This method has a drawback."

"what?"

“The tree trunk is currently in a balanced state. If we swing it over to rescue someone, the canopy will inevitably be subjected to force, and once it is subjected to force, the tree will fall, and there won’t be enough time to rescue the other person.”

Does this mean that we can only sacrifice one to save the other?

Zhao Sanyang scratched his head and asked, "If we hold the tree roots here, or grab it to prevent it from falling, would that work?"

Wutong smiled wryly and said, "If that's the case, then that would be good."

She poked at the mud around the tree roots and said, "It's so soft here that there's no way to use it as a foothold. If you try to grab it, you'll just drag everyone down with you."

Everyone was deep in thought, unable to come up with any other solution.

Moreover, time is of the essence. If the water level were to rise even higher, it's highly likely that not a single person could be saved.

At this moment, Nanxing, who had been silent all along, asked an important question.

He looked indifferently at the people in the treetop and said, "Even if we were to save them, who should we save?"

Both of them are alive; whose life isn't a life?

Wutong thought for a moment and asked the girl, "Who are your parents?"

The girl, still somewhat conscious, cried out, "My father is Zhao Dabao."

"And what about his father?"

"He is my brother."

Wutong immediately called over a soldier and told him to climb up and find Zhao Dabao.

The rest of the people stayed where they were, comforting the girl and telling her not to be afraid, that they would be rescued soon.

The boy groaned occasionally, his face deathly pale.

Zhao Dabao arrived. He was a dark-skinned villager, not much older than thirty. The flood had turned half his hair white with worry.

"Oh my god! My baby! Can't you hear what your father is saying? At least answer him!"

He knelt on the mud, wailing. The boy's consciousness was waning, and he couldn't respond. The girl, her voice hoarse from crying, called out again and again, "Father... Father..."

Wutong pressed down on Zhao Dabao's shoulder and asked seriously, "Our method can only save one person. Who do you want to save?"

She paused, then added, "The boy's side is closer to the water, so it will be more difficult to rescue him. Also, he doesn't seem as conscious as the girl, and he might already be injured. I suggest rescuing the girl."

“The girl…” Zhao Dabao murmured, “What about Bao? My wife is dead too, what will happen to my family line…”

Wutong never expected him to say such a thing, and frowned: "I was just suggesting it, the decision is yours to make."

His eyes were wide open in a daze, his rough, thick lips trembling slightly, and he cried out in a daze, "A boy! I want a boy!"

He shouted to the girl who kept crying, "Sister! I'm sorry, I'll repay you by working like a slave. Be good, let your brother do the work, okay?"

The girl cried her heart out: "Father..."

Unable to accept the answer, she desperately tried to move, using her last bit of strength to crawl towards the shore.

As she climbed, the tree almost fell. The boy unconsciously slid down a bit, his legs hanging precariously in the air, being washed by the water, teetering on the brink of collapse.

The crowd gasped and urged the girl to calm down, saying that if things continued like this, they might not be able to save any of them.

But she dared not stop, climbing faster and faster until her lips turned white from biting them.

Snapped!

A clump of mud hit her face. She froze, then looked up.

The person who humiliated her was her father.

Zhao Dabao drew the wood-chopping knife hanging at his waist, plunged it into the mud, and said in a trembling voice, filled with grief and suppressed anger, "Don't come any closer! If you do, I'll kill you!"

The girl burst into tears and cried out in disbelief, "Dad!"

Her voice echoed for a long time at the bottom of the cliff, extremely mournful, and it was hard to imagine that it came from a child whose life was hanging by a thread.

Wutong's eyes reddened, and she tried her best to hold back her emotions.

Since the child belonged to someone else, she couldn't make the decision herself. She could only follow Zhao Dabao's instructions and use a rope to swing across and rescue the boy.

End of this chapter